A survey that is part of a global study by the Mountain Invasion Research Network has revealed that road and rail expansion have carried alien invasive species high into the Himalayas in Kashmir.
Botanist Pervaiz Dar spent a good amount of time in 2012 and 2017 squatting and walking along roadsides in Kashmir, including at mountain pass Sinthan Top, surveying invasive alien plant species – plants that do not originally call Kashmir home but are now rapidly spreading into the region and creeping upwards into the mountains driven by expansion of infrastructure.
Surveying these plants in a T-shaped study plot, with the base of the T along the mountain roads and the limb of the T stretching away from them, Dar witnessed a myth unravel. “Mountains are no longer spared from invasive alien species. They are increasing in numbers and frequency over time,” Dar told Mongabay-India.
Field thistles with clusters of purple flowers (Cirsium arvense), mats of white clover (Trifolium re...